Mark BonchekGene Cornfield
April 28, 2016
Every company these days seems to be either contemplating or pursuing digital
transformation. Most cite the need to keep up with disruptive and
well-established competitors. But perhaps this focus is too narrow. We believe
the greatest challenge to companies today is not keeping up with their
competitors, but with their own customers.
One reason is that individuals are transforming to digital faster than
organizations. Think for a moment about people as tiny enterprises. They ve
redesigned their core processes in the area of procurement (online shopping),
talent acquisition (marketplaces), collaboration (social networking), market
research (peer reviews), finance (mobile payments) and travel (room and ride
sharing). Have you reinvented your core processes to the same degree?
Customers expectations are also more liquid and no longer based on industry
boundaries. Customers whether consumers or business buyers don t compare
your customer service to that of your competitors, but to the best customer
service they receive from anywhere. The same is true for their expectations of
your web site, mobile app, loyalty program, branding, and even social
responsibility.
So how can you keep up with your customers? You have to start thinking like
them.
Customers don t think in or; they think in and. You have to transcend
trade-offs.
The adage used to be that you could pick any two combinations of cheap, good,
or fast. But today s customer doesn t want to make tradeoffs. They want it
cheap, good, and fast. As leaders, we are accustomed to thinking of business
being about making tough decisions between competing objectives. But we need to
think more like our customers. Instead of focusing on how to make tradeoffs, we
need to focus on how to transcend them.
Some of the tradeoffs that are most suited to digital transcendence are:
Big and small: Combine the speed, agility and creativity of being small with
the scope, scale and influence associated with being big.
Complex and simple: Manage the systems and processes to run a global business
while creating simple and elegant experiences for customers.
Global and personal: Achieve universal consistency and reach around the world
while delivering relevant, tailored interactions to every customer.
Customers want to be empowered, not controlled. You have to act with empathy.
Business used to be about getting customers to do what you wanted them to do.
But customers don t accept this any more. They don t like to be told what to
do. They want relationships based on reciprocity, transparency and
authenticity. If you want to keep up with your customer, you can t be focused
on getting them to do what you want, but instead on helping them do what they
want.
This evolution from control to empowerment means a change in the basic building
blocks of customer engagement.
Funnels used to be linear processes that moved customers from one stage to the
next. There was no going back until a sale was either won or lost. Now these
funnels have become Escherian journeys, fluid, customer-led and
multi-dimensional. It s not about capturing and converting towards a
transaction, but connecting and collaborating around a shared purpose.
Channels used to be pipes connecting you with your customer, carrying carefully
crafted messages to passive audiences. Now they are experiences connecting
customers to their own desires, and communities connecting customers to each
other. It s not about promoting the features and benefits of your product, but
building empathy and understanding of each customer s intent and helping them
achieve it as part of an ongoing relationship.
Customers don t think in straight lines. You need to be non-linear.
To keep up with your customer, you have to let go of linear thinking. Customers
today expect you to be where they are, deliver what they want, when they want
it, and how they want it. If they re browsing your website on their laptop,
they will expect that when they next come to your site from their mobile device
or tablet, or talk to a sales person in your store, branch or call center, you
will pick up right where they left off. Business has become like that old game
of Twister. You have to be flexible if you are going to win.
This requires rethinking and redesigning core disciplines:
Strategy has to go beyond analyzing markets, making plans, and forecasting the
future. Strategy also has to build capabilities, transform culture and
architect for constant change.
Campaigns have to be more than one-way communications for one-time responses.
They need to initiate and expedite personalized journeys as part of ongoing
conversations.
Personalization needs to go deeper than looking simply at what someone buys. It
needs to be based on the subconscious motivations of why someone buys, revealed
through real-time analysis of a wide variety of data sources.
Social can t be treated merely as a channel for distributing messages. Done
right, it s a context for building genuine relationships that demonstrate how
much they really matter.
Loyalty needs to be more than accumulating points for rewards. To be genuine
and enduring, loyalty needs to be reciprocal. If you want their loyalty, you
have to be loyal in return.
Operations need to go beyond the efficiency of the company to the efficiency of
the customer. How can you optimize to help customers get more for their time
and effort, not just their money?
It s a significant shift in mindset and practice to reorient from keeping up
with competitors to keeping up with customers.
We suggest getting started by assessing where you are.
How does your transformation compare to your customers? In what areas are they
moving faster or slower than you are?
Who is setting your customers expectations? It s probably coming from outside
your industry.
What kind of relationship do you want to have with your customer? Are you
trying to get them to do what you want? Or figuring out how to help them do
what they want?
Next, look at where to focus your attention.
Which tradeoffs do you need to transcend? We mentioned a few above. Others
include speed and scale, consistent and nimble, high-tech and high-touch.
Where is linear thinking getting in the way? Review the disciplines outlined
above and see which ones will have the most impact on your customer experience.
Creating sustainable advantage is more elusive than ever. The new game is
designing customer-driven journeys across touch points to help them achieve
their intent, and to create more multidimensional relationships. To win this
game, stop thinking about just keeping up with your competitors, and start
thinking about keeping up with your customers.
Mark Bonchek is the Founder and CEO (Chief Epiphany Officer) of Shift Thinking.
He works with leaders and organizations to update their thinking for a digital
age. Sign up for the Shift newsletter and follow Mark on Twitter at
@MarkBonchek.
Gene Cornfield is Managing Director at Accenture Interactive, where he helps
global organizations transform their customer experiences, organizations, and
business outcomes.